There has been a significant increase in the use of smart phones among people from all socio demographic backgrounds, ages, professions, and educational levels. At the same time, the number us smart phone applications available either for free or purchase is increasing exponentially. While smart phones have a very high capacity to store new applications, smart phones have a limited amount of space to reasonably display and conveniently launch applications. As the number of installed applications on a given consumer's device increases, the consumer may become reluctant to download and install new applications particularly if the consumer has another similar (incumbent) application. As a result, the smart phone default screen has become a coveted destination for businesses and application developers alike.
For example, a consumer may have installed a payment or mobile wallet application on their smart phone that is designed specifically to work with a single merchant or franchise such as a restaurant, a clothing shop or a sporting goods store. As shown in FIG. 1 (prior art), a smartphone may be configured to store a maximum number of twenty-four applications on the default screen. As shown, eight of twenty-four (or ⅓ of the applications) are dedicated to specific merchants including Merchant A, Merchant B, Merchant C, Merchant D, Merchant E, Merchant F, Merchant G, Merchant H. This leaves only sixteen available spots on the main launch screen of the phone for other applications. Many users limit the number of merchant-specific applications that they have on their phone.